Very good morning to all of you and welcome to Gospel Light Christian Church and our 2nd English worship service this morning. And er…as we have been going through the book of Romans in our preaching ministry, I come straight today to Romans, chapter 15 and I’d like you to look at verses 30 to 32. Romans 15, verses 30 to 32. As you look at the subject on prayer and as it’s customary already by now, we’ll begin with a little video clip to introduce the subject of prayer.

(Video Shown)

He’s going to sleep on for a while more (referring to character in video), so don’t bother with Jon Tan. Jon Tan is a great, um…actor here. Can we give Jon a round of applause? (Applause in congregation) Thank…we thank God for his willingness to help us with this. I thought this video clip illustrates Matthew 26:41, right? Watch and pray because the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak. Now Jon Tan is going to snore for a while more, alright? We’ll let him wake up after a while. But this is what it is, isn’t it? We all Christians know we should pray, but we all sound like that when we pray. Maybe not physically but mentally we fall asleep. Christians, we must pray; we should pray; we ought to pray but why is it that we don’t pray?

So this morning, let’s look at Romans 15, alright? Verses 30 to 32 and here we see Paul's heart beat for prayer. He says “I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,” for three things. Number 1: “I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea,” Number 2: “…my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints…” and number 3: “…so that by God's will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.” (Romans 15:30-32, ESV) So this is a passage on prayer. This sermon is a little bit more teaching, a little bit more educational, so pardon me if I've many points, I just want to help you with the life of prayer that God wants us to have. Because I'm sure you have questions like: why should I pray? Why is it that when I pray it doesn't seem to work? God doesn’t seem to answer my prayers the way I had expected it to be. Why? And those are the questions you may have and those are the questions that will be addressed from this passage.

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Now this week, there is a major news that came out in our papers and media. Um… guess what is the major news I’m talking about? Anybody knows? This week, major news? Groundbreaking news? Exciting news? Anybody? (Response in the congregation) Sorry? Flooding, alright… flooding is one, that’s right. Singapore had a flood, quite a serious one but the news I'm talking about is…(picture shown) (laughter in the congregation) The launch of the iPhone 5S and 5C. Now, I thought I would share with you a message on prayer and so I called it iprayer, alright? And it’s not about 5S, it’s 5 ‘i’s. There’re 5 simple points I want to share with you about prayer and I hope it will be helpful to you. So 5 simple ‘i’, easy to follow me. The 1st 3 ‘i’s will be faster, the next 2 will be a bit slower. There are more things to develop. But here we go, alright?

The 1st thing I want to impress upon your heart is the importance of prayer. There came a point of time in my life, that I asked this question, “Why pray?” Why should I pray? You see, I learned, I studied and I found out that the Bible tells me that God is sovereign. In other words, He's in absolute control. He knows what's going to happen. He plans all things and there is no deviation from his sovereign plan. So if God had already determined all things from the beginning; He is absolutely sovereign; He will never fail; there will never be a need for plan B, I asked myself this question: “Then why do I pray?” It's already fixed! It's already settled. So if I pray, it shouldn’t change the mind of God. Indeed it cannot change the mind of God if He is sovereign. So, I had this grasp or this understanding early on in my Christian life that says, “Why bother to pray if God is sovereign?”

Somebody then tells me, the reason why you pray is not to change God's mind, it’s so that you may inform yourself of your own weakness and inability, so therefore you pray. Now, when I heard that, I said, “I don't need to inform myself, I already know my needs.” So you know what? For that period of time in my life, I stopped praying. I don’t see the point of praying. I asked myself, “Why pray?” If God is sovereign, why pray? I do not know if you struggle with this. If you’ve thought enough about your Christian life, I'm sure there will come a point of time when you ask yourself, “If God is sovereign, prayer contradicts that.” If I can pray and change God's mind, then He is not sovereign. So that may be the kind of logic and thinking you may have.

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If there is a man who believes in sovereignty of God, it will be Apostle Paul, isn’t it? I mean, Paul wrote extensively about God's sovereign powers and sovereign rights. But it is also very interesting, the same man who believes God is absolutely sovereign in control, will not have a Plan B, doesn't need a plan B, whose mind will not be changed, this same man also said in Romans 15: “…strive together with me in your prayers…” In Paul's mind, there is no contradiction between the sovereignty of God and the need for prayer. If I were to interview Paul today, I would ask him, “Paul, do you believe that God is sovereign? Absolutely sovereign?” He said “Yes. I absolutely believe in the absolute sovereignty of God.” And he will go on to say, “But I also believe in the absolute need for prayer because I wrote it all in Romans. I wrote about God’s sovereignty; I wrote about the need for prayer. I believe God's will is always done and I also believe God taught me to pray: Thy will be done.” There is no contradiction. You see, our danger is that we can fall into this trap or fatalism, of taking things for granted, of complacency that says, “Since God has determined all things ‘que sera sera’, whatever will be will be, then I don't have to pray.” So we abdicate our responsibility and we say, “God, You’re sovereign. You take care of it.” “I know my family is not saved, but You are sovereign, I don't have to pray for them.” “I know I'm not growing as a Christian, but You are sovereign, You’ll make me grow.” Is that the way we think and reason out in our Christian life? Paul doesn't allow it, isn't it? He says, God is sovereign, but please strive together with me in prayer.

The Scriptures tell us a lot about praying. The Scriptures say in Matthew 7, “Ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.” It didn’t say, “Oh, because God is sovereign, then please don't bother to ask; don't bother to seek; don’t bother to knock.” In fact, because God is sovereign, you continue to ask, to seek, to knock. I don't think anyone puts it more plainly than James, when he says, “You do not have because you do not ask.” As simple as that! You have not, don’t say that it’s because God is sovereign. He says, you do not have because you do not ask. You have not because you ask not. Plain and simple. So here is Scriptural teaching: God is sovereign and we also need to pray. It doesn't contradict. The devil wants you to think it contradicts. The devil wants you to say: God is sovereign, therefore you stop praying; you stop evangelising; you stop reading the Bible; you stop Christian activity; just sit back and relax, live a life of passivity. No! The devil wants you to believe that but the Scripture doesn't allow us to think like that.

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Just now in the video, you saw John Piper, right? Jon Tan was watching John Piper and John Piper was talking about prayer and er… if there is any man who believes in the sovereignty of God, I believe he will be John Piper. He’s clear. He’s a clear preacher and er… believer in God's absolute control. But in that video, in that sermon, He also said, prayer causes things to happen. Exact words: “Prayers cause things to happen, that would not happen if you didn't pray.” Prayer causes people to be saved; they would not be saved if you didn't pray, I could put it that way. Prayers cause people to be healed; they would not be healed if you didn't pray. Prayers cause people to grow; who would not grow if you didn't pray. Prayer causes your kids to be changed; who would not be changed if you didn't pray. He believes in a necessity and the power and the importance of prayer. He goes on to say, “It is staggering that God, the sovereign ruler…” You see, he doesn’t undermine any of the sovereignty of God. He says, “It is staggering that God, the sovereign ruler of the universe, will ordain that prayers cause things.” It is in the sovereign will of God that our responses, obedience will cause things. “This is a staggeringly glorious privilege (for our prayers) to be taken by the sovereign God and to fold it into His causality.” Somehow, in a way unknown to your limited, finite mind and my limited, finite mind, but somehow in God’s amazing will and mind, He folds our responses, our prayers, to be part of his causality.

So prayers cause things to happen, that would not happen if you didn't pray. Are you lamenting at the lacks? Are you lamenting at the inabilities? Are you lamenting at the illnesses, the unsaved people around you, the lethargy of your family and the church in the things of God? I want to encourage you, prayers cause things to happen. Ask, it shall be given; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. And if you have not, it’s because you ask not.

1st point - Paul says, strive together with me in prayer. I want to let you know it is really important. The 2nd point is a simple one, but I put it here as number 2 as involvement. If prayer is so important, he says it’s not enough that I pray alone. He says, pray together with me. That's exactly what it says. “…strive together with me…” Please pray with me! It's amazing, Paul the great apostle would humble himself and says, please, I beg you pray.

Spurgeon says he wrote to those whom he had never seen and begged their prayers as if he pleaded for his life. Why? Because here is a man who believes in the importance of prayer. When you're desperate enough, you will really ask for prayer. It’s when you are not desperate, that you never ask people to pray for you. That's the reality, isn’t it?

I have permission to share this and it is about one of our brothers here in church. His name is Desmond. Desmond, to my surprise, was…was hospitalised this week because he suffered a massive heart attack. He woke up at about 1 plus a.m. one day, this week, with pain on his chest and the numbness that radiated to his neck. He was gasping for air. Subsequently his family called for the ambulance and they came in 7 minutes. Wah, quite… quite impressive, I must say - Singapore service. 7 minutes from the call to the paramedics arriving in their home - 7 minutes flat. And they brought him in the ambulance to the A&E department and because there was only one, er… there was only one space allowed for family, so Oi Cheng got on and his 2 kids, er… Doreen and Timothy had to stay at home. When I visited them, Doreen was sharing that she was really concerned about daddy and what would happen and she was saying, and… she was saying, I wish I could get more of our people to… to what? (Response in the congregation) To pray. But she never called others because she “paisay” (Hokkein dialect word meaning shy or embarrassed). It was 2 a.m. and she was eh… embarrassed to call others, but you know what? There was that immediate, reflexive desire to get others to pray.

If you believe in the power of prayer, you will involve others in prayer. You would pray for others. You would get others to pray together and that's what Paul said, strive together with me. In our church, I don't think that we are that involved in prayer. That's a reality. I want to encourage our church to be more involved in prayer. You say how? One of the things I would like to do is to collate prayer request and thanksgiving across the church. If you’re a ministry leader, you’re a care group leader, we’d love to get your prayer request, we’ll have someone to gather those prayer requests on a weekly basis so that the pastor, the staff, our prayer meeting on Wednesday night, we can pray for the church. And for the church - for you to receive these prayer requests to pray together and to pray for others. You may be serving in the children's ministry, but you may be praying for someone in the dialect ministry. And I pray that as a church, we realise the importance of prayer and the involvement together in prayer. It’s not easy to pray, by the way. Prayer is hard work. It is hard work. That's why Moses, when he was praying alone, he needed a Aaron and a Hur to hold up his hands. And as a church, let's encourage each other with this principle – the involvement of prayer.

I said I'll go fast and I will. I go to the 3rd point and it is the intensity in prayer. Prayer is hard work! Sometimes we think we pray like Jon Tan ah… dear God, thank you for the breakfast, Amen; or even at night, you can’t be… you’re already so tired, dear God… and you fall asleep. But you know what? Prayer is really hard work! The word that is used, is the word ‘strive’ in the English, but in the Greek it’s the word ‘agonizomai’. It’s an athletic word; it’s a gymnastic word. It’s a word that refers to those who are fighting, struggling, battling. It’s a word of energy and intensity. In other words, he’s saying prayer is not just saying a few words as if it’s like a magical charm. It’s not an incantation, it's hard, hard work! It’s effort! It’s intensity! So he says, pray; labour in prayer; continue in prayer. That’s intense prayers. Not only does Paul say this about the Romans who need to pray together in this way. He says this is how one of their brothers, Epaphras would pray. You probably have not heard about Epaphras but he is noted in Scripture for this: his prayer life. How I wish we will be noted for our prayer lives, isn't it?

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Paul says about Epaphras, he’s one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus. How does he serve? Some of you are looking for ministries, you can't find one but you love to pray. Can I encourage you? Pray like Epaphras. Because he’s someone who is always ‘agonizomai-ing’ (if I may say) on your behalf, in his prayers. He's a true prayer warrior, who lays hold of God, as if he was like Jacob, wrestling with the angel at the River Jabbok. Prayer is intense. It's hard work.

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The church understood this in the early book of Acts, or in the early days of Acts. In Acts 12, Peter was kept in prison and the situation is that he would die the next day. So what did the church do? They didn't write petitions to the governor, they gathered together for prayer and they didn't just say their prayers. The Bible says, earnest prayer. This is another Greek word that means: stretched out. They really stretch themselves in prayer. It was a prayer of intensity, of effort, of labour. Henri Nouwen - he says, “The paradox of prayer is that it asks for a serious effort while it can only be received as a gift. We cannot plan, we cannot organise or manipulate God; but without a careful discipline, we cannot receive Him either.” Look at this! When we get an answer from God, it's not because we earned it but it's a gift. But the Scripture equally tells us we need to agonise in prayer, it is a serious effort! There’s a careful discipline that is involved.

Matthew Henry - many of you have read him and his commentaries. He says, “Pray with fixedness, faith and fervency; wrestle with God, as Jacob did; pray earnestly, as Elijah did, and stir up ourselves to take hold on God.” Prayer requires effort. Why? Is it because God is unwilling? No, He wants you to cling on to Him. He is willing to give, far more willing to give than we are to cling. But this is the way He wants us to pray: with effort, with intensity. The flesh will not allow it to be easy for you. The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. Have you ever noticed that when you want to pray, you always fall asleep? There will be distractions, there will be phone calls. Satan will not make it easy for you to pray.

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Andrew Bonar - he says that it seems like the forces of darkness are all bent in its force against the spirit of prayer. It doesn’t want you to pray but this is exactly what we need to do. Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of his willingness. Again this is not so helpful yet because you’re still wondering why should I pray so hard? Okay, but we’ll get there. So we’ve looked at:

Number 1: The importance of prayer.
Number 2: The involvement of prayer.
Number 3: The intensity of prayer.

The 4th “i” in iprayer 5i is the impact of prayer.

Now, Paul was praying very specifically for this: he was praying that he will be delivered from the unbelieving Jews in Judea. He knew that if he were to go back to Jerusalem, it will be entering the lion’s den. I mean he had a mission. His mission was to bring the money that is gathered from Achaea and Macedonia, bring it back to Jerusalem to help the poor struggling saints, but he knew this is a difficult place to go. Years ago, when he was in Jerusalem preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Jews hated him, persecuted him, wanted to kill him. He had to run away and now he's going back there? He knew it was going to be tough and so he called for the saints to pray for deliverance.

Soon after, Paul really got back to Jerusalem. This is a picture of Paul, the green colour figure. It’s a story in cartoon form so that you can sort of capture this. By the way, I did not imagine this story. It is found in Acts 21 to 23. You can read it when you get home if you like to. But the story goes like this: Paul, after writing the book of Romans, sometime later got back to Jerusalem. The elders, the leaders in the Jerusalem church welcomed Paul, then Paul went to the temple. He went to the temple for a purification rite for 7 days. At the end of the 7 days, there were unbelieving Jews who saw Paul and they stirred up the crowd and said, “This is the man who brought the dirty Greeks into the temple to pollute our Temple!” So they stirred up the crowds. They ran into the temple, lay hold of Paul, brought him out. They shut the gate and they began to beat Paul up to kill him. They mocked him, they lynched him and this is a picture of them grabbing Paul and they… the Bible says, they were about to kill him! Serious business. Paul would have lost his life, if not for a very, very timely appearance by the Roman soldiers. The Roman soldiers hearing upon the whole city, by the way, the Bible describes the whole city was in an uproar. The whole city was in commotion because of Paul and the Roman soldiers came at just the right time and asked, what’s happening? They began to take Paul aside, chained him and separated him from the mob that was out for his blood.

Subsequently, Paul was led out to the barracks, right of the castle and Paul now had an opportunity to address the crowd. He began to say or tell them about his testimony. He shared with them how Jesus appeared to him; how he received the calling and was sent to the Gentiles and upon hearing that Paul was sent to the Gentiles, they began to be angry. They said, enough! And they tore their clothes, they threw out the dirt. That is a protest, alright? Like kids like that. They protested and they say, away with this man, kill him, kill him. Paul through some twists and turns was subsequently brought in to the Jewish religious leaders.

Now, this group of leaders they are called “The Council”. The Council were made up of different religious sects. There were the Sadducees and the Pharisees. They do not see eye to eye in some doctrinal issues and so when Paul came and realised that this group of leaders composed of both the Sadducees and the Pharisees, he was very clever. He said, “I am a son of a Pharisee who believes in the resurrection from the dead.” Wow, the Sadducees heard that, they cannot take it! Hah? So you belong to the Pharisees who do not believe… who believe in the resurrection which we don't believe. So they were against Paul, but Paul got on the winning side with the Pharisees. The Pharisees said, he's part of us. And so what happened is even before Paul could say anything else. The Jewish leaders began to quarrel among themselves. The commotion was so great that there was no way it could be settled. Paul was now brought back to his cell.

That very night, the Lord appeared to Paul in Acts 23. And the Lord said to Paul, “Paul, be of good cheer.” I think it’s quite interesting. Paul must be ‘Or cheh’ (Hokkien dialect word meaning blue-black or bruise) everywhere, bleeding everywhere and God said to him, “Paul, be of good cheer because just as how you have witness to me, for me here in Jerusalem, you will witness for me in Rome.”

But unknown to Paul, there was a plan, a ploy being hatched. There was a group of more than 40 men, who gathered themselves and swore - took an oath that says we will not eat or drink until we killed Paul. So they decided that they would lay an ambush so that they can catch Paul and kill him on route. They went to tell this ploy to their Jewish religious leaders and it just happened. It just happened that in this conversation, there was a young boy who overheard what was said. This young boy turned out to be the nephew of Apostle Paul. He heard this, he went to the cellar and told Paul, his uncle the ploy. Paul immediately says, go! Go tell the centurion; go tell the commanders about this ploy of the Jews. And so this is what the boy did. He told the commanders and when they heard upon it, they decided they needed to protect Paul because he is a Roman citizen. And so the plan was this, at midnight or 3 or somewhere in the midnight time, they would send Paul away with 200 Infantry soldiers, 70 Horsemen and 200 Spearmen. I tell you what, this is quite an entourage, isn’t it? Close to 500 people to protect Apostle Paul. And Paul because of this arrangement, was safely brought to Felix, the governor at Caesarea.

It’s quite a…quite a plot, huh? You want to write movies also not so exciting. But this is all recorded for you in Acts 21 to 23. Let me ask you this question: of what I've described, which is a significant turning point to save Paul's life? If you’ve been following the story, you should be able to tell. Which is a defining turning point to save Paul's life? The Romans arrival was critical, if not Paul would have been beaten to a pulp. Okay, the little boy who overheard. That was really, wah… ‘heng’ (Hokkien dialect expression meaning lucky) ah! Now, when we look at a story like this, this will be your conclusion: “Wah, very ‘heng’ ah!” “Wah, very lucky ah! You Paul, almost going to die, lucky the soilders come!” or we may say, “Lucky the boy heard the story!” or we may say: “Wah, Paul, you’re really brilliant! You can answer them so well and caused confusion! Clever guy!” And we make the defining moments about the soldiers, about the boy and about Paul's intellect. Can I suggest to you? I believe the key event… now these are all important by the way. God used all these twists and turns to protect his man. God used the close to 500 soldiers to protect his man. But I think we often forget, one of the key defining moments is in Romans 15. “Please pray for me…” and all that we have described, all that I’ve shared with you in Acts 21, 23 is merely how God answered their prayers.

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Prayers cause things to happen that may not or will not happen if you didn't pray. When I was hearing Desmond and Oi Cheng share. By the way, his heart attack is really quite something. It's a full 99% blockage of one of the major arteries in the heart and eh… it was a major attack because Desmond not only had the pain and the numbness, he subsequently blacked out. He collapsed and when you have a hard attack and you collapsed, it means this: your heart is not pumping as it should. It's failing, so there's not enough blood that is pumped to the brain and therefore your brain dies… not die…starve itself of oxygen for the period of time your heart is not working. And if it lasts any longer, he’s dead! And what we have today is not the time to give thanks to God for preserving Desmond's life, we may really have a funeral, as I’ve told him.

And I was thinking, “Wow, this is really amazing!” Wow, you… some people die in their sleep, by the way. They have a heart attack in their sleep and that’s it! It’s amazing that you could wake up! It's amazing that you got your… your wife managed to call the ambulance and… it’s amazing we live in Singapore where the ambulance system is so efficient. It’s amazing it was not raining that night, so that there’s no accident. It’s amazing that the ambulance could get to your flat in 7 minutes! It's amazing that when you had your blackout, you were not on the road but you were in the A&E. He had a blackout in an A&E and within 30 seconds, the doctors were all ready with the AED. You know what’s a AED right? That… the automated external defibrillator. ‘Pooooh!’ Wah, very ‘shiok’ (Hokkien dialect expression meaning pleasurable or ecstasy) one! Gives you a kind of a shock and… and they managed to revive him with that. Imagine if he was still at home, he will be gone. Wah, it’s amazing that the doctor even know how to use it! I don't even know how to use it. I mean for all my medical years, I’ve never used it once. If I was the doctor on duty, I'm sorry! (Laughter in the congregation)

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It’s amazing! And as they were sharing, I was thinking, wah, really ah, wah…wah…the doctor very good ah…wah.. the paramedics, very good, wah the ambulance very good, wah, Singapore very good and I caught myself thinking, but that’s not the key right? Because Doreen shared, when Desmond and Oi Cheng were on route, she could only do one thing. She could only gather brother, Timothy and herself to pray. That’s all she did but that's all that was critical. She prayed and I thought to myself, “Hey! Isn't this the way God works.” Yes, God can use an ambulance, God can use an AED but God is answering their prayers. There’s impact in prayer. I want to share with you therefore the 4th ‘i’ - impact. It makes a difference. That's the teaching of Scripture.

The last ‘i’ I want to share with you, is to answer this question: how come I pray and it doesn't seem to work?

And the 5th ‘i’ is the ‘i’ of infirmity.

It's an old word that refers to weakness. There’s a particular weakness in your prayer life and my prayer life. Infirmity. I want to ask you this question: “Do we always get what we pray for?” Do we always get what we pray for? Can I ask how many of you today, have always gotten what you pray for? Can I see? Anyone here? You always get what you pray for. Wah…I almost saw a hand…ah…have ah? You always get what you pray for? Eh… later I talked to you. (Laughter in the congregation.) There are many things I want ah, maybe you have some magic power. Well, the reality in our prayer life is, I don’t think we always get what we pray for. You say why? Why don’t we always get what we pray for if God is a prayer answering God?

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Reason number 1, you ask and you do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend upon your own passions. So we can pray for the wrong things and therefore God says no lah, obviously. A child may cry to his Daddy, Mummy: “Mummy, I want a knife to cut myself, can or not?” Mummy says, “No, that's not good for you.” So God says no to us because we asked wrongly. Therefore, the key to having answered prayer is in 1 John where it says, this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us and if He hears us, we have the petitions desired of Him. So the key to having answered prayers is be sure you’re praying according to God's will. If you’re praying out of His will, you don't expect that kind of an answer. If you’re praying God's will, he answers and really, this is good. This is good because if God answers you according to your will, you are in trouble. Because your will sometimes can be very flawed and very bad for yourself, in spiritual sense. So God’s way is always the best, it works together for the greatest good and for His greatest glory. So, we rejoice, it's according to His will.

The question now I have for you is this: can we know God's will for sure? If the key to having answered prayers is knowing God's will, the next question is now, can you and I know God's will for sure? Think for 5 seconds. Can you and I know God's will for sure? In my prayer life? So that I know exactly what to pray for. Can you know God's will for sure? How many of you believe you can know God's will for sure? Can I see your show of hands? 1, 2, 3, anyone else? Okay, how many of you feel that we cannot know God's will for sure? Can I see by a show of hands? About 10, 12 of you. And to the rest of the 300, 400 people, you are…are you with me in service or not? (Laughter in the congregation) Okay, if you have to choose, alright? If you have to make a choice, if you have to make a choice, alright? Force yourself ah, don’t sit on the fans lah. Christians must be people of conviction, cannot be ‘wu ling liang ke’ (Hanyu Pinyin) in Chinese, cannot be ‘ini mini’ ah, okay? How many of you feel that we can know God's will for sure? Can I see by a show of hands? For sure. Okay, a bit more, more people really... You can know God's will for sure in your prayer life, in the circumstances to know exactly what you pray for, alright? How many of you feel you cannot know God's will for sure? There’s still a lot of people sleeping and… (laughter in the congregation) but okay, more of you. Now um…let me reason this with you before I show you the verses.

If you feel that you can know God's will for sure, okay, let me add this, you can know God's will for sure in every circumstance that you pray for, then you should expect your prayers to be answered in every circumstance. 1 John 5. And if God doesn't answer you in every circumstance, then you get discouraged and disappointed with God. Because you say, God, I…I know your will and it doesn't work this way. Suppose you have a loved one who is sick, the best you know how to say is: I believe it is Your will to heal my mother. You pray but your mother doesn't get healed. She passes away. How do you feel? I thought I knew your will? You get discouraged, you get disappointed and let me tell you, after a while you stop praying, because you are disillusioned, because you believe God's will can be known exactly, at all times. So there's a little difficulty when you believe you can know God’s will all the time, isn't it? You understand what I'm saying? Please er…so that I don't have to repeat that. (Laughter in the congregation)

But on the other hand, if you are someone who believes God's will can never be known. God’s will can never be known, to its exactness of it, then why do I bother to pray? Since I always ‘salah’ (Malay word meaning wrong) anyway. So if you think you know for sure, you get disappointed when it doesn't happen; but if you do not…if you think that you do not know, then you give up in prayer altogether. So there’s this very difficult dilemma, isn’t it? Let me say, maybe that's one of the reasons why many Christians don't pray. You get discouraged already, because there are many times, God doesn't answer you the way you have expected to or you’ve totally given up, because you feel I won’t know anyway. What is the biblical balance and tension? Be patient with me as I try to unfold this.

First, in Romans 8, there’s a very clear statement that answers our question. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our what? Weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, this is the specific weakness highlighted in the Bible. Do you know why we are weak in prayer? He says we do not know what to pray for as we ought. Plain and simple. And this is the reality you find in the Bible.

Remember in Daniel, Daniel had an interesting, very difficult situation. He and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, the 3 of them, they…they were supposed to be cast into the fire because they refused to bow down to the image Nebuchadnezzar had erected. So I'm sure the…the…the young men prayed to the Lord and say, Lord, what do you want us to do? I mean, if I bow, I'm compromising on my faith, but if I don't bow, I’m going to go to the furnace and I may be killed. See how they respond to the King! They say to the King, if this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us. No problem for God, He can save us out of the fiery furnace but the problem is we don't quite know. If He wants to, He can. But if He doesn’t, it's fine. We will die in the fiery furnace. The point of this text is saying, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Daniel and his friends, they didn't really know for sure.

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Paul himself didn't know for sure. In 2 Corinthians 12, he had this thorn in the flesh we all hear about. And he…so he comes to God and says, the best I know how lah Lord, I plead with you. Please remove this thorn from my flesh. He prayed not once, but 3 times. What did God says to Paul? In essence, answer is no. Paul, I know what you pray for but this is not my will. My will for you is that you will continue having that thorn so that you will realise my grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, you rejoice in this reproach. Paul didn't know. He prayed the best he knew how, but God's will was higher than his will.

In Acts 16, Paul and his gang wanted to go to the region of Phrygia and Galatia, but you know what? The Holy Spirit has something better. Don't go there. And then 2nd time they wanted to go to Mysia, they attempted to go to Bithynia but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. They didn't quite know. So, the language of the Bible should be this: in Romans 1, Paul understood that he didn't know everything, he is not God. He won’t know exactly every circumstance and what God's will is, in every circumstance. Therefore, he says, this is my prayer lah. I pray ah, always asking that somehow, if God allows me, by God's will, I may now at last, succeed in coming to you. But I let God decide lah. I don't know for sure. But this is my desire, I pray and God you... according to your sovereign will, you dispose accordingly.

He says in Romans 15 and that's exactly why he inserts this phrase: “…by God's will.” He’s not presuming. He says in Acts 18:21, but on taking leave of them he says, “I will return to you if God wills.” In 1 Corinthians, “…but I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills.” James puts it even more clearly, “…instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills,” because if you don’t have that understanding, you’re proud - you think you know. But you don't. So prayer has that infirmity - I don't really know.

So you say, Pastor like that, wah very discouraging lah, you! Like that then I don’t pray already lah! I go home lah! Well, you may have…we may end up with this conclusion if the sermon ends this way. But look at the beauty of Scripture. It is first to help you see your own weakness and then the beauty comes in. It’s only when you realise this, then this becomes important to you. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense. Romans 8 26:27 says, likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. What’s your weakness? (No response in the congregation) The Spirit helps you in your weakness, but what’s your weakness? Your weakness is that…okay, thank you so much, you save me! Er…because we do not know what to pray for as we ought – that’s our weakness, alright? But, look at this: it goes on to say, “…the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” He goes on to say, the reason why this is so powerful is because He, that is God the Father who searches the hearts, knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints, according to the will of God. This is amazing! He’s saying you when you pray, you do not know what to pray for as you ought, that’s your weakness. But that's fine, because I help you, with a certain guarantee that the Spirit who lives in you will take your imperfect prayers and often flawed prayers, perfect it. And the Spirit prays to the Father and the Father knows the mind of the Spirit. You say Pastor, how come I never hear the Spirit pray. Of course lah, it’s too deep for words. It’s communication between the 3rd person of the Trinity to the 1st person of the Trinity.

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After the 1st service, someone came to me and say, “Pastor it’s amazing. I didn't realise I have a perfect prayer partner.” You have not realised it folks, if you didn't look at this verse. Scripture is so encouraging. God is so encouraging. You do not know everything you should pray for but that's fine. Continue to develop in the understanding of God's Word, continue to develop in your… in your sensing and discernments in the way of life. But even if you do not get it all right, all the time, I have given you my Spirit. He helps you. You don't have to be stressed over prayer. By the way, coming to prayer is not a stressful thing. It should be a restful thing, where we rest in God and trust in His Spirit in us, to help us to pray.

This is what Spurgeon had to say: That the King should say to the petitioner, “Bring your case to me, and I will grant your desire,” is kindness. Imagine not many of us have an audience with our Prime Minister. To be able to go to the Prime Minister is something. To be able to ask the Prime Minister something is quite something, and if you are able to get the Prime Minister to do what you ask him to do, that's a lot of things. But we're not coming to a Prime Minister. The amazing thing about prayer is that the King is saying, bring your case before me, I will grant your desire. But wait, that's not all. He says not only that, he says, “I will be your secretary. I will write out your petition for you. I will put it into proper words so that your petition shall be framed acceptably,” this is goodness at its utmost stretch. This refers to the work of the Holy Spirit. But this is precisely what the Holy Spirit does for us, poor, ignorant, wavering, weak men.

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The point is this, when we pray, pray with all our heart and pray with all humility. Pray in all joy and restedness, that the Holy Spirit in me helps me to pray. There’s a wonderful prayer partner in your life. He’s not on the left, He’s not on the right, He’s right inside you. He’s the Holy Spirit. The amazing thing is every time you pray, He helps you. But you know what? If you do not go to pray, He doesn't do what He’s supposed to do in Romans 8. Doesn't bypass you. It doesn't bypass you. But when you pray, with sincerity and honesty and transparency before the Lord, you have the help of the Holy Spirit. And so when the Holy Spirit helps you in your prayer, this is what will happen: God will either give you what you asked, or something far better, because if you ask in God's will, it will be given. If you asked outside God's will, don't worry, the Holy Spirit makes it God's will, and because it is God's will. It is always far better. It may not be nicer okay? It may be painful but it is far better.

Now it all makes sense, isn’t it? Now it all makes sense why we should pray. Because He will give you what you asked for, if not far better and if you do not ask, you do not have. That's why we get people to pray because it's so important to pray. That’s why we pray with all our heart; that's why we believe that prayers make an impact because in our infirmity, we have the supreme prayer partner - the Spirit in us. I want to encourage you to be a people of prayer. Not because people are watching and looking, but because God says, I will be with you, I will help you, and I will answer you. Let’s bow for a word of prayer at this time.

And before we do so, I just like to give you an opportunity to reflect. Maybe it's been a long while since you prayed, since you meaningfully prayed. I know what you mean by prayer, you probably wake up in the morning, say a few words; before your breakfast, lunch, dinner, you say a few words; before you sleep, you say a few words, but you know you have not really prayed. And the reason why you have not really prayed is because maybe you’re discouraged. You’re discouraged, because if you have been praying for so long and God doesn’t seem to answer you. You’ve been praying for a child and there is no sign of pregnancy. You’ve been praying for healing, but there is no healing in sight. You are praying for your family to be reconciled, but it seems like there is no movement and you say, God, how can it be? I thought it is Your will? And you are discouraged.

Or maybe you have swung to the extreme to think that God is sovereign, I don't have to pray. Or maybe you have thought, since I would never know God's will for sure exactly, then why bother? But I hope today in this passage of Scripture, your questions are answered. And your hope is ignited, not because of who you are but because of who God is. He is amazing. He desires your prayers. He ordains that your prayers will make a difference. He has designed it as such. That prayers cause things to happen that would not happen if you didn't pray. And to ensure that you always have answers to prayer, He gives you His blessed Holy Spirit.

This morning, you may have needs in your life and I just want to give this time for you to pray. Yes, the time for you to pray. To pray for your mom, your dad, your child. Pray for your family, to pray for yourself. You're frustrated with the lack of spiritual growth. You pray for ministry, pray for your life, pray for others. If God today has laid a burden on your heart to pray for something, you know, don't stress out over saying, “Well, is this really God’s will? I’m not sure.” Just come to Him. He’s your Father. He knows your heart. By all means, align your thinking to Scripture. But even as you have tried so hard, don’t be stressed out in this time of prayer, be rested in Him, in His goodness, in the working of His blessed Spirit.

Pray for a breakthrough in your marriage. Pray for a breakthrough in your life. And He will give you what you ask for, or something far better. His will is always sovereign. It’s always sovereign. Sometimes, very surprising but always splendid. The amazing love and goodness of God.

So Father, we thank You this morning that we can pray. What a privilege! Not just pray right here, right now, but we can pray at all times. When we rise and when we sleep; when we work and when we are at rest. When we are with You alone or when we are with others. Thank You that we can pray and the perfect prayer partner never leaves us. Thank You for Your blessed Holy Spirit who takes our very, very imperfect and flawed, ignorant, weak prayers and perfects it. That we have the petitions that will be desired of You.

Lord, we do not know what this means all the time, but may this reality sink deeper into our hearts every day. So that You will stir within your people a spirit of prayer, that we will be called a house of prayer because You delight in prayer. We pray we’ll move forward in our lives, in our families, in our homes, in our church, not because how great we are but because of how great thou art. Help us, dear God, even this prayer I thank You, it will be perfected by Your Spirit. Rejoice in You and Your goodness. Hear the prayers of Your people, Your children. We ask and pray all this now, in Jesus’s name. Amen.